A Senate committee will hold an oversight hearing this week on the nation’s chief nuclear power regulator, an agency that has been bathed in controversy under the Trump administration.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing will likely feature plenty of drama as Democrats get their first opportunity to question all three Nuclear Regulatory Commission members over concerns the agency is losing both its safety-first directive and independence due to White House actions.
In the past few months, President Donald Trump removed one Democratic member, and a Republican member abruptly resigned.
“I want safe, new nuclear technologies to succeed, but the Trump administration’s reckless interference is dangerous to this industry, which depends on public confidence in its safety,” said committee ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) in July.
